He will be streaming at least 12h a day during these 4 days. That or untill he drops. When he has dropped other people will take over to continue the stream. So it´s going to be good fun.

Sunday is a pre-starter with some nice stuff like showing how everything is set up.

There will be bidding wars when they are playing the current game there will be a bidding war between two games as to which game the viewers want to be played next. So it´s going to be a lot of viewer generated content since we decide what they play.

The one big problem is that I do not have any exact time for when all of this starts on Sunday or Monday. So for the best and freshest information you can follow trihex on twitter:
@trihexx

So we are in for a big treat next week. I´m looking forward to it. I hope you are as well.

The stream will be done on http://www.twitch.tv/trihex

in the US Aksys Games marketed the first game pretty boldly with trailers that had content like this in them

Europe on the other hand actually got it before the US, but here it is called Agarest: Generations of War and the EU release was the “first” edition as Aksys Games went for the updated Record of Agarest War: Re-appearance as opposed to Ghostlight.

For the sequel Agarest Zero both companies did bring out the same edition but their LE editions were a bit apart with Ghostlight having the most stuff(t-shirts FTW if preordered from the Ghostlight store) but at the ground they were pretty similar.

Now Agarest 2 is around the corner. Both Aksys Games and Ghostlight are releasing it and once again Aksys Games are doing a “naughty version” while Ghostlight is packing their “Deluxe Collectors edition that will ruin your wallet“.

Here is Aksys Games CE edition

And Ghostlight´s ditto

There are some differences as you can see. Now what should a fan like me do? I want to support both publishers and all these extra godies from both editions are tempting as hell.

.
..
…

As you probably guessed after that last line, yes I have preordered both editions of the game. I need me some cute baseball caps and bags and inflatable dolls along with a nice hand towel that won´t be used but rather will be placed safely far far away from anything harmfull.

I wonder how big the bag is? Can´t really get any good reading from the image. Would be lovely if it were big enough to hold a laptop. Nerd alert where ever I go

And no, I do not think I will grab a “move” controller just to get another kind of play for the “mini-games” even though I hope that these minigames are not “move” exclusive. Would make things terrible.

So will you guys be doing the same as me and getting both versions or do you only spend money on one of the editions? In that case which one are you getting?

p.s No I haven´t grabbed the Agarest Zero CE yet. It has sold out so I can´t get the really nice version. Will have to settle for a version without the t-shirt in that case.

This here is the first English PV that has been released. It talks about what we have to look forward to in February 2012 as that is when the game will be released.

I´m both looking forward to this title and I also wonder if I should get it since I didn´t finish the first game yet.

The main idiot

Shulk is a boy that is very much interested in mechanics and above all a mysterious sword called the “Monad”. So interested that he ignores basically everyone around him. Much to Fiora, a girl childhood friend of his, big irritation.

For me it is irritating to see that a person is so much interested in mechanics and a mysterious sword that he has to ignore just about everything around him. Openly anyway. He is interested in Fiora one can tell from his actions and how he acts when she is in danger.

He also has some fighting ability and weirdly for a main character he also has some weak support spells. You can understand my face when I noticed that. All this is because the game itself uses “aggro” in battles and Shulk is pretty weak in the HP department for a MC.

The reason he has healing spells is for when in battle he is supposed to be more of a supportive character than anything else.

Questing

When I called this a MMORPG I wasn´t lying. Just about everyone in town has something to ask of Shulk. It can be killing a certain monster, collecting items dropped from monsters or finding persons or people.

Your reward are items and exp as well as the items you get for killing the opponents. MMORPG style it is. Very western RPG as well with loads of NPCs thinking you are a blind hero that is only to be used for little reward. Given the amount of enemy levels that appear in the starting area you kinda need the levels. And doing these quests by yourself is a big no-no as you are to weak, the healing spell you have rarely heals anything and the enemies are everything from easy to gruesome. In the starting area there are enemies from lvl 1 to lvl 70 all depending on where in the big starting area you head. Some of the enemies are agressive and attack on sight, others are more friendly and need you to attack them first. Which is a good thing since otherwise you would be attack by swarms of enemies.

It´s basic stuff but it works and it gives you a good chance to rack up on the small amount of exp that some of the enemies give as well.

Achievements

Discovering new lands, doing big amount of damage, doing quests. Everything in this game seems to give you a achievement of some sorts sometime. Which will give you exp which is a good thing. Often you get more exp from the achievements than from questing or defeating enemies.

Battling in real time

The most disturbing thing with Xenoblade Chronicles is that you need to choose a enemy and then draw your weapon to start the battle. It makes walking around and exploring easy but if a enemy is attacking you on sight you have to sport the enemy first, draw your weapon and then you have to execute the command to start fighting.

Normal attacks are automatic and depends on weapon type. So dual wielding is a good idea here. Skills is where you get in. You have special skills with certain attributes for each character. Which can make more damage if you attack from the rear or side by example.

There are also bigger badder monsters available that do more damage, have higher HP and are a big challange. They also give out quite good exp if you are at the right level.

I haven´t started yet

This is my thoughts for the first 6 hours of gameplay. And with that I haven´t even walked past the first area yet. There are simply so many quests to do. Often one person have 3 or more quests in a row for you to accept. So this is a big freaking game.

But understandable. It is both fun and irritating to do battle. Irritating that the only revive option is for your teammate to walk over to you and use a special unit that charges up as you do critical hits and the like. But there are only 3 of these units that can be filled. And if you don´t battle all the time they slowly degrade and go from full to empty. Which can be irritating.

The really sad part is that this so far is a PAL territory exclusive title only. So no NTSC version available yet. Which is a pity since it is actually a quite good and interesting game. But I hope it will get better as I play it.

A digital War

For all Fate fans you are given a nice treat. THe Holy War is now managed by a big satellite on the Moon. The Holy War is now a state of a game with a lethal twist. Lose in this game and you will die in the real world. Potential masters are selected and brought to the virtual school ground of Tsukumihara Academy as students. Here they have 4 days to acknowledge that something is wrong, that everyday is the same and that they repeat the same stuff day after day.

If they succeed in wanting to know who they really are they are given a examination. Succeed at this test and glory to you, you are now a chosen Master with your own Servant, if you did not succeed well you´re dead.

A long long intro

Thought Wild Arms with it´s three different character intro was long? Well this is a bit longer and only because of the sheer amount of things you do. Having read that you could choose your gender I was dumbstruck when I started a new game. I did not get a choice in the matter and my gender was chosen for me. As a guy I got accustomed to Tsukumihara Academy with some cameos from the series Fate/Stay Night like Sakura and Shinji Matou, Rin Tohsaka and Toiga.

It was a nice welcome for me. Even though I wondered why I hadn´t been allowed to choose my gender or servant. I spent time doing research on “mysterious happenings” on school grounds for the school newspaper. Sometimes I would get a big headache and wonder why the screen suddenly got all weird. Like watching a old TV with bad reception the screen got somewhat blurry.

Four days I spent running around school grounds getting to know the place. Then I “awakened” to my situation and wanted to get free from the chains of destiny. So I followed a mysterious transfer student into a different realm. Here I found a weird body that was assigned to protect me. We ventured forth and found a dead body. The same kind of weird body lay still on the floor only to suddenly spring to life and attack me.

A battle!! Finally some action I thought. But I couldn´t do shit and my temporary servant was defeated as easy as pie. I collapse at the floor wondering if this is the end? Where did I make a wrong choice since I didn´t want to restart and try again.

Oh boy this must be the first game that trolls me this hard. This time spent running around school ground and talking with everyone and getting accustomed to this place was about 2 hours. And it was just the introduction to the game. NOW the real game starts.

A grindfest

This game demands you to grind. Or at least it does for me since I choose Caster as my servant. With a good status overall of E in all aspects she is the weakest servant. But I have my love for animal girls so the choice wasn´t hard to make :p

This game consists of two stages. During your school day you react and answer questions from teachers, fellow students and rival magi. You can also go to your own special room to talk with your servant. You might even want to go to the library. The reason for this is as any Fate-fan should know. To get information about your opponent and his/her servant. This gives you an edge in battles and makes them a lot easier.

The other type of stage is in the “arena”. The place where you will spend most of your time. In this arena there are enemies that you will defeat, items in chests to gain money or special gear. There are several stages and all of them are fixed in size, types of enemies and items that appears. If you want to exit you have to go to the beginning or the end of the arena you are on. You can save when you are in school but not in the arena. If your servant is defeated at anytime in any battle it is game over.

You also only have 6 days of school and grinding in the arena before the boss appears. There is also a recommended lvl for you to be at when the 7th day comes around in the week. So you better get your fighting gear on fast and good.

Rock, scissors, paper

The battles are easy. Each round consists of 6 actions. You have a choice of “attack”, “guard” and “break”. And they work like the classic game rock, scissors and paper. Where each choice wins over one, get´s defeated by one and is a draw if the same symbol is used.

Here attack wins over break, break wins over guard and guard wins over attack. if both should choose attack or break there will either be a simultaneous attack where both servants are hurt or you get 0 damage. If both choose guard nothing happens.

Should you succeed to choose the right action 3 times in a row you will get a “Extra” attack that is a one hit where your opponent can´t do a thing.

The more you fight the same enemy type the more knowledge you get of the enemy. This gives you an edge in battles as you see what they will do and can counter it pretty easy.

Interesting and irritating

This game is a mouthful. It has excellent typings, some comedy and a easy battle system to learn. But the amount of time I will have to spend on grinding is not fun at all. Especially since I haven´t found a way to save while in the arena. So one false move and I will have to replay who knows how much time thanks to one false move since Caster is so weak. I´m currently trying to get her physical attack and def up to speed to stand a chance. It has gone so-so.

And since you can´t run from a battle when you have started it you can guess how many times I´m going to rage…

With good dialogue, nice characters and a fresh take on the Holy Grail War from the Fate universe this game is golden. Now as long as I just gain more knowledge about when I can save and not… it would make things so much easier.

After creating PSO Episode 1, Episode 2 came as a add-on to the original game. Bigger badder stages, new level cap and more items to find.

Then came the setbacks. Episode 3 was released as a card based strategy game. It looked boring and from the gameplay videos it played even worse. Then Phantasy Star Universe came along with basically the same stuff that we had seen in PSO EP 1 & 2. It was not well received. Neither was the following game Phantasy Star Universe 2.

But with this title I hope that Sega reclaims some of their glory in the MMORPG genre and if the video is any showing on how it is going to be then my am I interested in this game.

I just hope that there are a light monthly fee and that there are more enemy types than in the earlier games.

While I enjoy playing JRPGs, a certain amount of time is also spent trying out demos on PSN mainly. So when I found a RPG/Puzzle game that I´ve been interested in for some time and it even had a demo I just had to try it.

The results are interesting to say the least.

A puzzle game with RPG elements? Wow. Having battles become a simple move units to same unit of same color to make chains, links and more and then wait for the attack to start is interesting. Like Puzzle Booble but only with elves and archers that combine into walls of plants or fire arrows at the enemy. We get a good amount of battles in the demo. Even get to try out a boss fight. But after said bossfight it ends. Which is a pity but it gave enough time spent with the battle system so that I could become interested in it.

Storywise there wasn´t much to say. My guess is that we have 5 different heroes that will gain different units to fight with and we get to play trough each hero´s story before the game either ends or they all meet up to finish the fight. Having the heroes be children or rather sons and daughters of famous older people that die in the prelude is basic stuff.

For the price of 14.99US I have to say it is tempting to buy. I have to think about it. Battle system is addicting and fun, but I don´t know how many battles I can withstand in the same maner with such a system. And I don´t feel like the storyline is going to interest me that much.

But if you´re starved for a RPG that combines puzzle elements and have really nice graphics then I´d get this. Quite cheap and apparently it has been released for DS, PSP and now finally found it´s way to bigger consoles in the form of PS3.

The first final game of the Ar Tonelico series is here and after having played some of this full HD game I have something that I want to share with all of our visitors.

I love the details that they have done with the 2d images. Ar Tonelico style in full HD is great. I don´t like the 3d images used that much though. Don´t know why really. Not just my thing. It´s also a great laught that the game is a bit buggy when jumping. Have Aoto jump and when he lands the animation will freeze for a very short amount of time so he´s hovering over the ground.

To beging with I wasn´t to found of this choice of graphics. Having to run around in 3d worlds is something I´ve done so much. But I got used to it and I wouldn´t want it any other way when I play now.

Changes
Except for the graphic design there are one more big change to previous Ar Tonelico games. Once again we have 3 fighters and 1 reyvateil in battles. But this time around the game is having action oriented real time battles. With the reyvateil having a special circle around her and you want to protect the reyvateil as she will lose HP if a enemy goes into this said circle. The system from Ar Tonelico 2 is long gone which is a pity if you ask me. Sure I played on normal but I thought that the game would give me a more challenging battle system. I can just mash square to make attacks and that´s that. I want some more challange. I guess I should try hard mode to see if it is any harder.

To protect the reyvateil if a enemy is inside her circle you press the “circle” button and you will knock the opponent away. Then you have a set amount of time before you can use this knock away attack again. So if there are multiple enemies that go inside the circle then you have no choice but to let them hurt the reyvateil and hope she doesn´t die and that the opponent goes away on it´s own.

Instead of having loads and loads of differents clothes for the reyvateils here the two main heroines Saki and Finnel have multiple personalities. So when you progress deep enough into their cosmospheres they will unite with these personalities so you can choose which one you want.

Stripping in battle?
One of the reasons I guess for Ar Tonelico Qoga receiving a mature rating is that the reyvateils when gotten to a certain point and you shake the PS3 controller will strip. They want to make it sound less perverted by calling it that they “Purge” the clothes to gain more power. I wonder how they came up with that idea.

It fits straight into the usual gameplay of Ar Tonelico sure. But in battles? Not really what I expected. And that you have to shake the controller for the purge to be initiated is also to much gimmick for my taste. Sometimes my controller doesn´t realize I´ve shaken it so nothing happends. Instead I just take damage and that is irritating as hell.

First Impressions: Good
I´ve enjoyed the time I´ve spent with Ar Tonelico Qoga. What started out as a simple request from a dying man soon become something more intimate. Aoto is a good hero for this game. Saki and Finnel give the game variety and the mysterious entity named Tilia is spoken about a few times.

The crisis that struck Japan with both the earthquake and tsunamis followed by more smaller earthquakes have left the world in shock. Many companies have started doing special drives where all sales go to helping the people of Japan recover.

For gamers Japan is a very special place. So what could be more fiting than the guys from Speed Demos Archive doing a marathon of their own where they play videogames and have people donate to a good cause. All money donated during this marathon will go 100% to Doctors Without Borders so they can send in more help to Japan.

It´s a good thing. All you have to do is watch the skillfull men and women of SDA play games and if you feel like it you can donate money. Everyone wins.

The Marathon starts today at 4PM EDT and goes for a full 4 days to Sunday. They will play more than 60 games

For more information please visit the Official Page

So what´s up people? The Fool has been quiet for a long long time now. There are a multitude of reasons as always.

But let´s just keep it simple, my life has been shit and I haven´t had the focus or motivation to try and write something nice here.

If you follow me on youtube you might have noticed that I have uploaded some footage.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F0E5C36990AE03D5 Fun times with Agarest

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E544485018387798 First playtrough of Hard Corps: Uprising with a friend in Rising Mode

And after getting my hands on Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel you can guess what I have been doing lately? Playing a lot of Ar Tonelico. So much that I finished the normal Saki and the Bad End routes. Then I noticed that I had gotten myself into the bug of Saki´s trophy. So I have to play trough everything from the beginning again if I want to get the trophy for Saki´s 100% cosmosphere.

Also a miss from my side is that I didn´t know about Myu. So I saved over that and have no way of upgrading myself. So if I want to enter the True routes I have to replay all the way from Phase 2. That kinda cost me my interest in Ar Tonelico Qoga for some time. Instead I found myself taking more time to play Arc the Lad 2 again. So now I´ve almost finished that and gotten Arc the Lad 3 in the process.

So when I find my motivation to write again I will write first impressions on Ar Tonelico Qoga and hopefully review Arc the Lad 2. All in the future obviously.

That´s what´s keep me from posting. Sorry bout that. I´m doing my best to get back into posting once a week. Failing miserably in the process so far but will keep working on it.